


A piece of happiness

by kiki_92



Category: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Video Games)
Genre: Bandit lends a hand, Bandit may or may not having feelings for Jäger too oops, Crushes, F/M, Gift Fic, Jäger is awkward, Nerds in Love, no beta we die like (wo)men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:21:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27686192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiki_92/pseuds/kiki_92
Summary: Jäger has a crush on Iana, and would love to spend more time with her. He just needs a little nudge to act on it, and Bandit is fed up of watching their longing gazes from across the room.
Relationships: Dominic "Bandit" Brunsmeier & Mairus "Jäger" Streicher, Marius "Jäger" Streicher/Nienke "Iana" Meijer
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	A piece of happiness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bottombunk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bottombunk/gifts).



> Here's part #2 of the pair-up event from Discord! I went to give some content to one of your rare pairs, but somehow along the way it kinda developed into an unrequieted Bandit/Jäger crush on the side, dammit. At least I know you like both ships xD

She was staring at him. Jäger knew because he was also staring at her, of course. Usually, he wasn’t one to be distracted during briefings, but Harry’s not-so-brief speech about competitive spirit and a new tournament was nearly a repeat from his last one, so Jäger’s attention wandered. Iana was much more interesting anyway.

Not only was her appearance unique and striking, like the stars she loved so, she could also keep up with him. In fact, sometimes Jäger felt like the one trying to catch up with her mind. And she never appeared to be irritated with him when he failed to grasp some social cue. Bandit said that was because she lived with her head in the clouds, just like him. 

Perhaps he was right, but she seemed to have an easier time adapting to Rainbow than he did, and back then there weren’t nearly as many people in the organization. The important part was that Jäger felt she understood him, more than most people anyway; then why was he so nervous whenever they talked? It was almost as bad as talking with Kali; the difference being that Kali made him uneasy, while Iana filled him with a restless energy that wasn’t wholly unpleasant.

“Can you two stop mooning over each other for five minutes? It’s distracting,” Bandit whispered harshly by his side.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jäger wasn’t mooning over anyone, he was just distracted and his eyes wandered to Iana. A simple coincidence.

“Don’t play dumb, a blind man could see it.” Unnerved by Bandit’s assessment, Jäger played with the hem of his sleeve and remained quiet.

Bandit didn’t like Iana, Jäger knew as much. Perhaps he never said it outright, but he scowled and became irritated whenever Jäger talked about her for a while. This time, Bandit surprised him by leaning towards him conspiratorially and whispering, “Have you two fucked yet?”

Jäger almost choked on air. Trust Bandit to always ask things in the most crude way possible. “No. It’s nothing like… we haven’t talked much.”

“What are you waiting for then?” Bandit stretched on the chair, like a lazy cat, eyes narrowed as he observed Jäger. “It’s not like you have nothing to say. In fact, I bet you could probably talk for hours if nobody stopped you.”

Unlike some other people, when Bandit said that it didn’t feel like a critique about him; he was just stating a fact. And if he remembered correctly, Bandit even enjoyed Jäger’s enthusiastic ranting about whatever latest documentary he’d seen. If he could do that without being deeply invested in the topic, surely Iana wouldn’t find Jäger tedious, would she? She always seemed interested in what he had to say, but then again their conversations had been rather short until now.

There were no further comments from Bandit for the rest of the briefing, but as soon as Harry walked out of the door, Bandit dragged Jäger with him and went to intercept Iana on her way out. “Hey, Meijer!”

She looked surprised that Bandit was talking to her outside training or a mission, but she waited for him, head cocked to the side ever so slightly as if she was trying to solve a puzzle.

“What are you doing tonight?” Bandit asked, and for a moment, Jäger had the sinking feeling Bandit was about to ask her out. Then he realized that was ridiculous. Probably. 

“At 20:00 hours, dinner. Afterwards, Elena and I have been working on improving the duration of-”

“Yeah, okay,” Bandit interrupted her, rather rudely in Jäger’s opinion. Why ask if he didn’t want an answer? Unless his idea was to make Jäger look better by comparison. “Tonight is poker night, and everyone’s coming, right Mari?”

Iana smiled at the nickname, but Jäger was too confused to notice. “It is? It must have slipped my mind…”

Bandit put his arm around Jäger’s shoulders, squeezing a little too tightly. “If you don’t want to come, you don’t have to invent excuses. If you’d rather watch some documentary than watch me mop the floor with the Americans...”

“More like they’ll mop the floor with you,” Jäger shot back, not fooled by Bandit’s fake and over the top hurt tone. He never stayed for long on poker night, since he was only marginally better at playing than Fuze. Being bested again and again lost its appeal rather fast.

“I have some documentary suggestions for you,” Iana chimed in, looking at Jäger with a hopeful expression. “About those questions you had of dark holes and Einsten-Rosen bridges.”

“Great, we can discuss ideas after I’ve watched it.” Jäger’s beaming smile didn’t falter much when Bandit discreetly kicked his foot, and he reconsidered the whole situation. “Or we could watch it together, if you’re not busy. In… In case I have questions.”

Iana smiled back at him, radiant like the sun, and Jäger could swear he felt the warmth filling his soul. “I’d love that. I find you and your questions very interesting.”

They parted ways after that, Iana glancing back at him one last time before she went towards Mira’s domains and the tech labs. With the suspicion this had probably been Bandit’s intended outcome from the start, Jäger asked, “Isn’t poker night on Friday, though?”

“Sure it is,” Bandit admitted, which only created more questions in Jäger’s mind. Would have he set Jäger and Iana in some sort of date under false pretenses? What a question; he wouldn’t put it past Bandit if that was his plan from the start.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Watching you act like a lovestruck fool stopped being entertaining long.” Oh. Perhaps it was naïve of him, but Jäger had been expecting something more like wanting to help a friend. “Besides, you’re more tolerable when you’re happy.”

Whatever had been his motive to help, Jäger was still grateful for the nudge, otherwise he would still be fretting about the best way to approach her. And the implication that Bandit wanted him to be happy was making him unreasonably happy. Jäger didn’t know how to react. He wanted to scoff at Bandit’s earlier remark, and thank him, and berate him for being a nosy and interfering bastard, and tell him he was one of the best friends he could ever want. Instead, Jäger blurted out, “Why help me if you dislike Nienke?”

The arm that had been around his shoulders until now went slack, slowly sliding down before Bandit took a step away from him. “Well, I’m not the one asking her out, am I? My opinion of her doesn’t matter, and she’s probably the perfect woman for you.”

The bitter lilt in Bandit’s voice was disconcerting, as it was Bandit’s colder demeanor. Jäger wasn’t the best at noticing the subtle details of non-verbal communication, but Bandit was being pretty obvious right now. He decided to not press the issue, not wanting to further annoy his friend.

“Anyway, thank you.” If it was Blitz, he would jump to hug him, but something stopped him from doing the same with Bandit. Jäger shuffled in place, awkwardly. “You’re a good friend, not as much of an asshole as you want to make people believe.”

“Only for you, Mari,” Bandit slapped his back, a lopsided smirk on his face. “And you owe me one now.”

What a terrifying prospect, being indebted to Bandit. He would surely collect with interest. And yet Jäger nodded solemnly. “Anything you want.”

“Don’t make promises like this, someone will always try to take advantage of your generosity.” 

“But I trust you, Dom.” That was true. He trusted Bandit with his life on the field, and he had proved to be a good friend, albeit one with a knack for getting in trouble.

Bandit left, muttering about how Jäger would be the death of him, and the engineer stared at his retreating form while trying to organise his thoughts. Talking with Bandit was always mildly confusing, but this time he had the nagging feeling he was missing some important clue.

He went to the workshop still deep in thought until Twitch saw him, and she started teasing him about how both he and Iana were in a remarkably good mood and daydreaming expression. All other thoughts fled from his mind when he remembered his impending not-quite-a-date with Iana, and the confirmation that she was looking forward to it as much as he did.

Today he felt like the luckiest man in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> You can say hi and see what I'm currently up to on [my tumblr](http://r6shippingdelivery.tumblr.com/) and on [my twitter](https://twitter.com/kikipeachywitch) !


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